Place-based health indexes: an essential resource in building for health

One of the reasons for launching Build for Health earlier this year and holding its first workshop in July was to work with a collective of built environment practitioners to forge consensus on practice in developing places that support good health.

During this workshop and through our LinkedIn group we’ve shared and explored frameworks,  tools, data, and design codes that have been developed to support practitioners in building for health.

Implementation has been scattered, reflecting less on the quality of these practical aids, and more on the challenges to their adoption by institutions and organisations governing planning, development, housebuilding and health provision. Continual changes in the NHS, for example, impact everything from authority to data to definitions of health.

There is very little incentive to form a consensus on standards of practice with such constant change.

In the absence of consensus and uniformity amongst practitioners on what it means to build for health and what good practice looks like – even with an abundance of robust support in the form of tools and frameworks – perhaps it makes sense to shift focus from agreeing a code of practice for the underlying process of place development to  agreeing what good looks like. In other words, focus on measuring health, not supply. Scrap meaningless targets and track wellbeing.

Several indexes have been developed to help do just this.

Why is an index valuable? It helps us to collect and organise information, measure and benchmark change and ultimately compare performance. A useful index is objective and unbiased, reflects reality and helps users to envisage – and ultimately implement - change.

When it comes to building for health a reliable index can help to unite practitioners in the built environment around performance measures and raise standards for practice by demonstrating what good looks like.

Here are four indexes that help us understand, measure and compare places based on the health and wellbeing of their inhabitants.

UK Better Lives Index

Recently developed by the International Longevity Centre the UK Better Lives Index offers a useful new tool for understanding “how geography shapes our chances of living long, healthy, and fulfilling lives.”

Bringing together data on income, health, employment, and opportunity across the life course, the Index helps to identify not just where inequalities exist, but how they intersect with place and persist between generations. It aims to move beyond one-off or nation-specific analyses, offering a consistent UK-wide lens to inform more targeted and joined-up policymaking. “

“This is just the beginning” according to the ILC. “We want to build on the Index by expanding the indicators it covers, updating it when data allows to track progress over time, and working with local and national partners to explore how it can guide investment, reform, and strategy. Whether it is shaping the next iteration of the NHS plan, informing industrial policy, or supporting local leaders to tackle disadvantage, the Index is designed to be a practical and evolving tool to help ensure that everyone, regardless of where they are born or grow old, has the chance to lead a better, longer life

The UK Better Lives Index is not just a diagnosis – it is a roadmap for action. It shows where inequality is entrenched, but also where strengths can be built on. With the right investment and attention, every community has the potential to support longer, better lives.

Urban Health Index

Developed for Southwark and Lambeth by Impact Urban Health

the Urban Health Index uses social, health and environmental data to show how healthy a neighbourhood is, alllowing a comparison between neighbourhoods by measuring areas of relative strength and weakness in each ward.

It’s the first neighbourhood level, health-focused Social Progress Index of its kind – capturing data on a range of indicators for the 48 neighbourhoods in the south London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. 

The UHI helps users to understand the social and environmental factors that shape the health and wellbeing of the people living in these areas.

The three dimensions are:

• Basic human needs – assessing if people in an area can fulfil basic needs, including nutrition, medical care, water, sanitation, housing and personal safety

• Foundations of wellbeing – understanding whether people are able to live healthy and fulfilling lives, with access to education, information, health, and an environment that supports social wellbeing

• Opportunity – looking at whether people have the freedom and opportunity to make their own choices. It assesses personal rights, freedom feel included within society

Healthy Urban Design Index (HUDI)

 The HUDI is a large-scale, high-resolution, open-data tool that measures key urban health factors across nearly 1000 European cities of different sizes. As an open-source resource, HUDI provides valuable, data-driven insights to help cities identify strengths, weaknesses, and urban management areas needing improvement. By offering clear, measurable indicators, it helps policy makers and urban planners pinpoint problem areas and make informed decisions to improve public health and sustainability.

HUDI is a dynamic tool, not a definitive ranking. By clustering cities by size, it enables comparisons, knowledge, and best practice sharing. Further research is needed to refine HUDI and expand its indicators and cities as better data become available. A key strength of HUDI is its ability to highlight data gaps and encourage better data collection.

The Flourishing Index

The Flourishing Index was created for the development of Brent Cross New Town, a large-scale regeneration scheme in north London led by Barnet Council and Related Argent.  

Developed by Buro Happold and the University of Manchester, the Flourishing Index forms a baseline against which the future wellbeing of residents can be measured.

The developers describe their challenge to build a collaborative measurement system that uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative science:

“All data was collected prior to the delivery of the major Brent Cross Town delivery stages, from local people who already live in the Brent Cross area. The vast majority are expected to remain in the area, as the regeneration project is built and managed.

The key goal was to create a new way to measure how well the people at Brent Cross Town are doing, and in turn how well the regeneration project is doing, evolving the focus of wellbeing from ‘me’ to ‘us’ and creating a ‘Flourishing Index’ that reflects the experiences of all stakeholders.”

These evidence-led presentations of health performance can be a neutral and objective starting point for dialogue amongst stakeholders in development schemes, leading to collaboration on decisions going forward.

As the government accelerates its commitment to relax planning rules and its housebuilding ambitions are driven forward through the development of 12 new towns and 1.5m new homes across the country, indexes like these will be essential for measuring and comparing their impact on health. Over time, they will hopefully lead to a consistent, unified code of practice to build for health.

Clare Delmar

Listen to Locals

17 October 2025